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r,-^-...   HX64098176 

R 1 54.  W76  R 1 9  a  sketch  of  the  life 


From  Db.  Ruschenbkegbe, 

1932  Chestnut  St.,  PHladelpliia, 


CASPAR  WISTER,  M.D. 


Columbia  toibcrs^itp 
in  tf)c  €itp  of  iBtcto  Pork 

College  of  ^fjpgicians  anb  burgeons 


J^eference  Hihvavp 


/ 


A    SKETCH 


OF  THE  LIFE  OF 


CASPAR   WISTER,   M.D. 


BY 
W.  S.  W.  RUSCHENBERGER,  M.D. 


REPRINTED   FROM   THE 

TRANSACTIONS    OF    THE    COLLEGE    OF    PHYSICIANS    OE    PHILADELPHIA, 

NOVEMBER    5,   1890. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
WM.    J.   DORNAN,   PRINTER. 

1891. 


)VuA 


Digitized  by  the  InternerArchive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/sketchoflifeofcaOOrusc 


A     SKETCH 

OF  THE  LIFE  OP 

CASPAR    WISTEE,    M.D., 

WITH    NOTICES    OF   HIS  ANCESTOKS. 

By  W.  S.  W.  RUSCHENBEKGER,  'M.D. 

[Read  November  5,  1890.] 


Theokies  of  heredity  imply  that  the  foundation  of  the  natural 
characteristics  of  a  man,  structural  and  mental,  is  laid  and  gradually 
evolved  by  his  ancestors  very  many  decades  before  his  birth  ;  and  that 
a  detailed  record  of  the  natural  qualities  of  his  lineal  predecessors 
might  enable  an  expert  in  the  premises  to  foretell  the  general  char- 
acter, if  not  the  fortune  of  the  newly-born  infant,  as  satisfactorily  at 
least  as  any  forecast  made  by  astrologers  of  old.  In  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  complex  operations  of  heredity,  this  suggestion 
is  manifestly  premature,  and  not  likely  to  be  realized. 

Professor  James  H.  Stoller  says,  in  an  essay  on  Human  Heredity, 
"All  the  qualities  of  our  human  nature  come  to  us  by  inheritance."^ 
And  Dr.  Oliver  "Wendell  Holmes  says — Over  the  Tea  cups — "  What  he 
is  by  nature  is  not  determined  by  himself,  but  by  his  parentage." 

The  accuracy  of  this  assumption  may  be  questioned.  Even  if  exact, 
the  inheritance  is  unequally  and  irregularly  transmitted.  Of  many 
children  of  the  same  parentage,  born  and  reared  under  the  same 
circumstances,  all  may  be  of  normal  stature  and  intelligence  or  above  ; 
but  sometimes  one  is  unaccountably  an  ingenious  dwarf,  or  an  idiot 
physically  well  developed,  or  misshaped,  "  scarce  half  made  up." 

Dr.  August  Weismann  says,  in  his  essay  on  the  Duration  of  Life, 
"  We  know  that  long  life  is  hereditary."     And  yet  all  the  children  of 

-  Popular  Science  Monthly,  July,  1890. 


4  W.    S.    \V.    RL'SCHENBERG  KK, 

octogenarian  ancestors  do  not  uniformly  attain  advanced  age,  although 
all  alike  live  under  the  same  influences.  Some  of  them  do  not  reach 
adult  years. 

Notable  fecundity,  and  other  natural  qualities  of  ancestors,  are  not 
always  transmitted  to  their  descendants. 

The  sons  of  eminently  great  fathers  are  not  always  endowed  in  any 
respect  above  the  average  of  men  of  their  class  and  time.  And  very 
frequently  the  sons  of  clergymen  are  neither  naturally  fitted  nor 
inclined  to  follow  their  fathers'  examples.  The  ancestors  of  distin- 
guished men  are  often  obscure  people.  For  instance,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin. His  remote  origin  has  been  traced  to  a  family  of  the  name,  in 
which  a  farm  was  o-wned  for  three  hundred  years  or  more  at  Ecton,  in 
Northamptonshire,  sixty-six  miles  from  London.  The  eldest  son  regu- 
larly inherited  the  farm,  and  was  always  a  blacksmith.  All  males  of 
the  family  worked  at  the  same  or  other  trades.  Josiah  Franklin, 
father  of  the  Doctor,  about  1685  came  to  Boston  with  his  wife  and 
three  children.  Lack  of  custom  and  profit  in  his  trade  of  dyer, 
induced  him  to  become  a  tallow  chandler  and  soap  boiler.  In  1689, 
when  he  was  thirty-five  years  old,  his  wife  died,  soon  after  the  birth  of 
their  seventh  child.  Within  a  year  he  married  Abiah,  youngest 
daughter  of  Peter  Folger,  "a  learned  and  godly  Englishman."  Dr. 
Franklin  was  one  of  their  ten  children  ;  and  possibly  may  be  indebted 
to  the  Folger  stock  for  some  of  his  natural  endowments,'  mental  and 
physical.  Be  this  as  it  may  he  far  out-measured  in  every  sense  his 
uterine  fellows. 

On  the  other  hand  peculiar  qualities  so  fully  characterize  members 
of  the  same  family  that  their  kinship  is  easily  recognized.  Dramatic 
talent  often  runs  in  a  family  through  several  generations,  but  not 
always.  And  in  many  instances  musical  talent  in  like  manner  seems 
to  be  an  inheritance. 

Observation  shows  that  criminal  classes  include  numerous  squads  of 
blood  relations,  sires  and  sons.  This  feature  in  heredity  seems  to  be 
so  clearly  determined  that  it  might  be  accepted  as  a  conclusive  reason 
for  diminishing  the  number  of  criminals  in  the  future,  by  legally 
requiring  that  every  person,  male  and  female,  on  admission  into  a 
prison  on  a  second  conviction  of  crime  should  be  at  once  aniBsthesitized 
and  permanently  sterilized  by  the  surgeon  of  the  institution,  as  the 

1  Life  and  Times  of  Beujaraiu  Franklin,  hj  James  Parton:    Mason  Brothers,  New 
York,  1864. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  i> 

initiatory,  radical  means  of  their  reformation.  Such  an  economic 
application  of  a  doctrine  of  heredity  might  be  opposed  by  those  who 
do  not  believe  in  it,  as  well  as  by  those  whose  clemency  for  criminals 
makes  them  forgetful  of  the  welfare  of  honest  people. 

Besides  virtues  and  vices,  according  to  both  popular  and  medical 
opinion,  diseases  are  inherited.  Insanity,  gout,  drunkenness,  tubercu- 
losis run  in  families  from  parents  to  children.  The  inheritance  of 
tuberculosis  may  be  now  considered  questionable  by  some  since  hosts 
of  observations,  it  is  asserted,  demonstrate  that  tuberculosis  is  a  specific 
infectious  disease,  caused  alone  by  the  bacillus  tuberculosis.  But  in 
spite  of  the  earnest,  ceaseless  and  praiseworthy  labors  of  Dr.  Koch 
and  many  others  during  several  years,  to  ascertain  the  origin  and 
habits  of  this  bacillus  with  a  view  to  discover  means  for  its  destruction, 
it  still  carries  on  its  ravages  with  impunity ;  and  notwithstanding  the 
indictment  found  against  it  by  most  astute  detectives,  the  mortality 
from  tuberculosis  remains  unchanged. 

The  many  problems  of  heredity  remain  to  be  solved.  Mr.  Francis 
Galton,  who  has  studied  the  subject  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury and  published  several  essays  and  books  about  it,  says,  in  his  last 
work,  that  "no  complete  theory  of  inheritance  has  yet  been  propounded 
that  meets  with  general  acceptance."  ^ 

And  Dr.  August  Weismann  says,  "  I  am  unable  to  indicate  the 
molecular  and  chemical  properties  of  the  cell  upon  which  the  duration 
of  its  power  of  reproduction  depends ;  to  ask  this  is  to  demand  an  ex- 
planation of  the  nature  of  heredity — a  problem  the  solution  of  which 
may  still  occupy  many  generations  of  scientists.  At  present  we  can 
hardly  venture  to  propose  any  explanation  of  the  nature  of  heredity."^ 

And  recently  it  has  been  asserted,  that  we  of  the  present  generation 
are  wrong  to  be  unconcerned  for  the  physical  and  mental  qualities, 
not  only  of  the  next  but  of  all  generations  in  the  remotest  future. 
Heredity  and  evolution,  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  omniscient 
Creator,  have  wrought  alone  from  the  beginning,  to  increase,  raise  the 
physical  and  mental  powers  of  the  human  race  from  the  lowest  level 
to  the  highest  degree  of  excellence;  but  now,  the  cooperative  assistance 

1  Natural  Inheritance,  by  Francis  Galton,  etc. :  Macmillan  &  Co.,  London  and  New 
York,  1889,  8vo.,  pp.  259. 

2  Essays  upon  Heredity  and  Kindred  Biological  Problems,  by  Dr.  August  Weis- 
mann, Professor  in  the  University  of  Freiburg  in  Breisgau.  Authorized  Translation 
edited  by  Edward  B.  Poulton,  M.A.,  etc.,  Selmar  Schonland,  Ph.D.,  etc.,  and  Arthur 
E.  Shipley,  M.A.,  etc.,  8Vo.,  pp.  455.     Oxford,  At  the  Clarendon  Press,  1889. 


6  W.   S.    W.    RDSCHEXBERGER, 

of  all  men  of  to-day  is  needed  to  prevent  the  rate  of  progress  from 
being  lessened.  Over-work  of  all  kinds,  and  many  other  excesses  are 
impairing  our  vigor,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  a  duty  to  secure  for  our- 
selves, by  appropriate  hygienic  means,  the  highest  degree  of  physical 
and  mental  force  attainable  for  the  benevolent  object  of  transmitting 
the  same  to  our  posterity. 

Accepting  an  assumption  that  the  characteristics  of  man  may  have 
come  to  him  through  th^  functions  of  reproductive  cells  in  the  bodies 
of  remote  ancestors,  this  sketch  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Caspar  Wister  begins 
with  brief  notices  of  his  great-great-grandparents  and  their  lineal 
offspring. 

The  family  names,  Wister  and  Wistar,  have  been  traced  back  about 
two  centuries. 

The  Great-Great  Grandfather  of  the  Wisters. 

Hans  Caspar  Wiister,  and  his  wife,  Anna  Katarina,  resided  at 
Hilsbach,  a  village  seventeen  miles  S.S.E.  from  Heidelberg,  in  the 
Duchy  of  Baden.  He  was  Jiiger,  that  is.  Hunter  or  gamekeeper  of 
the  prince  Palatine — a  prince  entitled  to  privileges  in  the  palace. 

The  Rector  of  the  Lutheran  church  at  Hilsbach  has  in  his  keeping 
a  book  in  which  are  recorded  the  baptisms  of  the  parish,  from  1699. 
The  register  used  in  the  church  for  the  purpose  prior  to  that  date  had 
been  accidentally  consumed  by  fire.  This  one  contains  the  names  of 
five  of  their  six  children,  with  the  date  of  birth  of  each.  The  name 
of  Caspar,  the  oldest,  is  not  in  it,  because  he  was  born  February  3, 
1696,  before  the  Rector's  old  church  book  was  opened  for  entries. 

Though  not  recorded,  it  seems  fairly  supposable  that  Hans  Caspar 
and  his  wife  knew  who  were  their  parents,  grand  parents,  and  great 
grand  parents,  though  comparatively  obscure  people,  and  for  this 
reason  it  may  be  admitted  that  knowledge  of  the  family  existed  as  far 
back  at  least  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  individual  characteristics  of  Hans  Caspar  and  his  ancestors 
have  not  been  recorded. 

Theories  of  evolution  and  heredity  suggest  that  all  pedigrees  started 
alike  and  at  the  same  time  with  the  beginning  of  the  human  race, 
and  that,  under  natural  law,  their  growth  and  duration  were  the  same. 
In  this  conditionof  perfect  equality  in  this  respect,  every  one  knew  that 
he  had  forefathers  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  did  not  appraise  himself 
more  highly  than  his  neighbors  on  that  account.     In  the  course  of 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  7 

time,  however,  views  changed  and  men  were  pleased  to  believe  they 
were  better  for  the  virtues  of  parents.  Then  it  came  to  be  conven- 
tionally agreed  that  a  pedigree  worthy  of  mention  must  be  traceable 
through  a  line  of  ancestors,  each  being  named  with  his  relative  posi- 
tion and  connection  in  the  line  clearly  designated.  Therefore,  the 
value  of  a  pedigree  is  commensurate  with  the  length  of  the  period 
during  which  it  can  be  traced. 

As  early  as  1683,  William  Penn  invited  Mennonites  in  Holland, 
Germany,  and  elsewhere  to  settle  in  the  new  country,  and  offered  to 
sell  them  land  in  his  province.  Numbers  accepted  the  invitation, 
and,  to  escape  persecutions  they  suffered  from  religious  intolerance  at 
home,  became  valuable  citizens  of  the  English  colonies.  Among  the 
early  Mennonite  settlers  in  Germantown  were  many  weavers.  The 
Friends  and  the  Mennonites  were  peaceable  neighbors  ;  both  sects  con- 
scientiously believing  that  war  and  bearing  arms  under  any  circum- 
stances are  repugnant  to  their  sense  of  religious  duty. 

These  immigrants  no  doubt  reported  to  their  kinsmen  and  friends 
in  Europe  the  advantages  of  living  in  America  in  a  manner  to  induce 
many  to  follow  them. 

Caspar,  the  eldest  son  of  -Hans  Caspar,  dissatisfied  with  the  aspect 
of  the  probable  opportunities  to  increase  his  means  of  livelihood  in 
Germany,  started,  as  soon  his  age  authorized  him  legally  to  act 
independently  of  his  father,  to  seek  better  chances  of  happiness  and 
fortune  in  the  new  world.  He  arrived  in  Philadelphia  September  16, 
1717.  His  Jager  rifle,  which  he  brought  with  him,  is  still  an  heirloom 
in  the  family. 

When  Caspar  Wiister  settled  in  Philadelphia  the  inhabitants  were 
subjects  of  George  I.,  King  of  England,  and  were  English  in  their 
modes  of  thinking,  their  political  affiliations  and  language.  Accord- 
ing to  a  family  tradition  his  name  was  anglicized  by  his  American 
associates.  As  he  spelled  it  aloud  as  he  had  done  in  his  native  land, 
they  substituted  in  place  of  the  German  it,  marked  by  an  umlaut,  the 
English  i,  which  letter  in  sound  was  supposed  to  approximate  nearest 
to  his  pronunciation  of  it ;  and  for  like  reason,  the  German  e  was 
superseded  by  the  English  broad  a,  and  so  they  wrote  his  name  Caspar 
Wistar ;  and  concordantly  he  signed  his  oath  of  allegiance  to  King 
George  I.,  in  1721. 

In  the  first  years  of  his  residence  in  Philadelphia  he  carried  on  the 
business  of  button-maker,  and  was  successful.  The  Colonial  Assembly 
enacted  a  law  "  for  the   better  enabling  Caspar  Wistar   and  John 


8  W.   S.    W.    KUSCHENBERGER, 

Crapo,  merchants,  and  Nicolay  Gateau  to  trade  and  hold  lands  in  the 
Province."  He  and  other  born  subjects  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
had  petitioned  for  such  legislation,  April  27,  1724.  The  Weekly 
Mercury,  in  1726,  recorded  him  among  "the  principal  merchants  of 
the  city." 

He  purchased  laud  where  North  Broad  Street  and  the  Ridge  Avenue 
are  now  ;  some  of  it  is  still  owned  by  his  descendants. 

In  1726  he  married  Katherine  Johnson  of  Germantown.  His  son 
Richard,  born  in  1727,  the  eldest  of  his  seven  children,  married  in 
1751,  Sarah,  daughter  of  Bartholomew  Wyatt,  of  Mannington  town- 
ship, Salem  County,  N.  J.  He  bought  between  two  and  three  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  in  that  county,  and  established,  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  Allowaystown,  a  glass  factory,  said  to  be  the  first  in  this 
country.  The  immediate  management  of  it  was  confided  to  a  super- 
intendent, for  the  reason  that  he  resided  in  Philadelphia. 

He  had  eight  children.  Que  of  them  was  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar,  the 
eminent  professor  of  anatomy  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  fourth  President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society — from 
January,  1815,  to  January,  1818.^ 

As  soon  as  his  observation  and  experience  had  satisfied  him  that 
Philadelphia  afforded  better  opportunities  than  Hilsbach  for  a  young 
man  to  seek  a  fortune,  Caspar  advised  his  younger  brother  John  to 
settle  here  without  delay.  John,  however,  declined  the  invitation, 
because  he  was  not  willing  to  leave  Germany  while  his  father  was 
living. 

Not  very  long  after  the  death  of  Hans  Caspar  Wiister,  January 
13,  1726,  and  about  the  time  that  George  II.  became  King  of  Eng- 
land, June  11,  1727,  he  left  Hilsbach,  and,  at  the  end  of  a  four 
months'  voyage,  landed  in  Philadelphia,  September,  1727,  in  the 
nineteeth  year  of  his  age.     He  was  born  November  7,  1708. 

These  two  brothers,  who  were  the  founders  of  the  Wistar  and 
Wister  families  of  Philadelphia  and  New  Jersey,  probably  had  no 
more  education  and  training  at  home  than  were  usually  given  to 
hunters  and  gamekeepers  in  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

1  History  of  the  Counties  of  Gloucester,  Salem  and  Cumberland,  New  Jersey,  with 
Biographical  Sketches  of  their  Prominent  Citizens.  By  Thomas  Cushing,  M.D.,  and 
Charles  E.  Sheppard,  Esq.    Quarto,  pp.  723.     Everts  &  Peck  :  Philadelphia,  1883. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  9 

The  Great-Grandfather  op  the  Wisters. 

Besides  robust  health,  good  sense,  a  cheerful  disposition,  honest  and 
industrious  ways,  John  brought  with  him  little,  if  any,  capital.  He 
soon  found  employment. 

He  was  so  prosperous  that  he  was  able  in  1731,  to  purchase  an 
extensive  plot  of  ground  on  the  north  side  of  Market  Street,  between 
Third  and  Fourth  Streets.  It  was  overgrown  with  blackberries. 
These  he  converted  into  wine,  and  sold  it  so  well  that  he  was- induced 
to  become  a  wine  merchant,  at  first  on  a  small  scale ;  imported  wines 
from  Germany,  and  prospered  in  the  trade.  Subsequently,  however, 
he  dealt  exclusively  in  drygoods. 

He  attended  closely  to  business,  was  thrifty  and  invested  his  savings 
preferably  in  real  estate.  He  built  a  store  and  dwelling  on  his  Market 
Street  property ;  bought  land  in  Germantown,  part  of  which  is  still 
known  as  Wister's  woods,  and  a  tract  on  the  main  street,  upon  which 
he  constructed,  in  1744,  a  fine  large  house  for  his  family  residence  in 
summer. 

The  Market  Street  house,  now  No.  325,  was  one  of  the  first  in  the 
city  in  which  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin  (who  was  among  the  acquaint- 
ances of  John  Wister  as  well  as  of  all  good  citizens  of  the  time),  about 
the  year  1753,  erected  a  lightning  rod — a  hexagonal  iron  rod — still  in 
possession  of  the  family — which  was  so  connected  with  a  bell  that  it 
rang  whenever  the  atmosphere  was  locally  surcharged  with  electricity. 
The  ringing  of  the  bell  annoyed  Mrs.  Wister,  who  entertained  a  notion, 
then  not  uncommon,  that  a  lightning  rod  was  in  some  manner  sinful ; 
— "an  impious  attempt  to  'control  the  artillery  of  Heaven,' "  ^ — and  at 
her  instigation  was  after  a  time  removed. 

Simple  in  his  manners  and  tastes,  John  Wister  gave  his  leisure  to 
books ;  was  benevolent,  disposed  •  to  be  religious.  He  sent  money  to 
relatives  in  Germany ;  for  a  time,  he  had  bread  baked  in  his  kitchen 
to  be  distributed  on  Saturdays  to  destitute  applicants  for  it  at  his  door ; 
and,  in  1760,  he  contributed  his  quota  towards  founding  the  German- 
town  academy. 

He  married,  February  1731,  Salome  Zimmerman  of  Lancaster 
County,  Pa.,  who  died  at  the  end  of  five  years.  Of  their  four  children 
only  one,  named  Salome,  reached  adult  age. 

1  See,  Life  and  Times  of  Benjamin  Franklin.    By  James  Parton.    'New  York,  1864, 
vol.  i.,  p.  294. 


10  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

Anna  Catherina  Rubenkam  of  Wanfried,  Germany,  became  his 
second  wife,  November  10,  1737,  and  lived  till  May  17,  1770.  Three 
of  their  five  children  attained  mature  age. 

His  third  wife,  a  Moravian  nun  of  Ephrata,  was  without  issue. 

While  a  British  army  occupied  Philadelphia  he  wrote  to  his  grand- 
daughters, Sally  and  Betsy,  then  at  Gwynedd,  July  6,  1777,  "  I  am 
not  at  liberty  to  visit  you  because  I  cannot  take  the  *  Test,'  and  I  am 
afraid  to  venture  for  fear  of  being  arrested  and  committed  to  jail.  I 
intend  therefore  staying  at  home. 

"Do  not  be  ashamed  to  learn  to  do  any  country  work ;  if  you  do  not 
want  to  do  it  hereafter  you  can  always  let  it  alone.  There  is  no  shame 
in  learning  to  do  anything  that  is  useful." 

Again,  December  22,  1777,  he  wrote,  *  *  "  i  cannot  at  present 
send  you  anything,  for  the  merchants  will  not  sell  their  goods  but  for 
hard  money;  and  hard  money  I  have  but  little  of  *  *  *  We 
cannot  buy  provisions  for  old  or  for  Congress  money  here  in  town. 

"  But,  my  dear  children,  if  the  Lord  grants  me  health  till  next 
spring,  I  then  intend  to  buy  cloth  and  other  necessary  things  for  you 
all.     I  then  hope  that  old  money  will  pass  again. 

"  They  have  quartered  a  Cornet  and  his  wife,  and  a  white  man  and 
a  negro,  besides  three  horses  and  a  cow  upon  me. 

"  They  have  taken  the  three  best  rooms  in  my  house,  and  I  must 
now  live  in  the  back  building.  It  most  kills  me  to  be  so  ill-treated  in 
ray  old  age,  that  I  must  give  up  my  own  bedchamber,  which  I  have 
occupied  nearly  thirty  years  to  a  stranger.  I  have  very  little  rest,  day 
or  night  besides." 

Nevertheless,  he  survived  these  annoyances  several  years. 

His  last  illness  of  six  days,  during  which  his  faculties  were  unim- 
paired, was  passed  without  a  murmur.  He  died,  January  31,  1789,  in 
the  eighty-first  year  of  his  age.  His  remains  were  buried  in  the 
Friends'  cemetery,  at  Arch  and  Fourth  streets. 

He  bequeathed  his  estate  to  his  children. 

It  is  conjectured  that  John  Wister  opportunely  trained  his  sons 
Daniel  and  William,  as  well  as  his  grandson  John,  to  the  dry-goods 
trade,  and  at  the  proper  time  admitted  each  to  a  share  in' it.  As  the 
sons  were  partners  in  the  firm  at  the  time  of  their  father's  death,  they 
jointly  continued  the  business. 

William  Wister,  who  was  born  March  29,  1746,  died  unmarried  in 
1800,  in  the  54th  year  of  his  age.  It  is  stated  as  evidence  of  his  good 
standing  in  the  community  that  the  Provincial  Assembly  appointed 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAK    WISTER.  11 

him  with  his  kinsmen   Owen  Jones,  Jr.,  and  Col.  Samuel  Miles,  to 
endorse  the  paper  currency  of  the  time. 

The  Grandfather  op  the  Wistees. 

Daniel  Wister,  son  of  John  and  his  second  wife  Anna  Catharine, 
both  of  German  birth  and  parentage,  was  born  at  No.  141 — now  325 — 
Market  Street,  Philadelphia,  February  4,  1739. 

He  was  educated  in  the  Moravian  College  at  Ephrata,  Pa.  His 
classical  attainments  were  good.  Besides  German,  he  understood  other 
modern  languages. 

His  temperament  was  kindly  and  cheerful ;  his  natural  disposition 
genial,  social,  a  bon  vivant;  and  he  possessed  so  much  of  the  sports- 
man's spirit  as  to  be  interested  in  owning  horses,  dogs  and  cats.  He 
had  many  caged  birds  in  his  house.  At  times  their  singing  was  so 
noisy  and  discordant  that  it  was  usual  to  silence  the  birds  by  covering 
their  cages  to  enable  persons  at  meals  to  hear  each  other  talk. 

Like  his  father  he  was  successful  in  business. 

He  married.  May  5,  1760,  Lowry,  a  daughter  of  Owen  Jones,  (who 
was  Colonial  Treasurer),  and  his  wife  Susannah,  of  St.  Mary's  and 
Wynnewood,  Lower  Merion,  Pa.,  and  so  crossed  his  German  with  a 
good  Welsh  breed  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  They  had  nine  children, 
namely  Sarah,  Elizabeth,  John,  Hannah,  Susan,  John,  William, 
Charles  Jones  and  William  Wynne.     Some  of  them  died  in  infancy. 

In  Sept.  1777,  he  moved  his  family  to  Gwynedd,  North  Wales,  Pa. 
where  his  daughter  Sarah,  then  a  sprightly  girl  of  fifteen,  commonly 
called  Sally  Wister,  kept  a  diary  addressed  to  her  friend  Deborah 
Norris,  beginning  Sept.  25,  1777,  and  ending  June  20,  1778.  This 
interesting  journal,  kept  during  an  exciting  period  of  the  Revolution, 
has  been  published  in  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and 
Biography.  She  as  well  as  all  of  his  descendants,  with  rare  exceptions 
were  endowed  with  a  poetic  vein  and  wrote  rhyming  letters ;  and  some 
of  them  had  o,  taste  and  capacity  for  music. 

Daniel  Wister  died  Oct.  27, 1805  in  the  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age. 
During  the  last  few  days  of  his  life  he  was  mentally  astray  and  talked 
only  in  Latin. 

The  Father  of  Dr.  Caspar  Wister. 

Charles  Jones,  the  eighth  child  of  Daniel  and  Lowry  Wister,  was 
born,  April  12,  1782,  at  the  Market  Street  home;  and  died  July  23, 
1865,  in  the  84th  year  of  his  age. 


12  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

In  virtue  of  his  birthright  in  the  Society,  derived  from  his  mother, 
at  the  age  of  nine  years  he  entered  a  school  established,  at  the  time, 
on  Fourth  Street  south  of  Chestnut  Street,  by  members  of  the  Society 
of  Friends.  English,  mathematics  and  the  classics  were  taught  in  the 
school.  He  studied  French  under  Monsieur  N.  G.  Dufief,  author  of 
Nature  Displayed,  etc.,  a  prominent  teacher  in  his  day,  and  German 
under  Herr  Giese.  In  the  summer  time  he  attended  the  Germantown 
Academy.  He  was  a  merry,  mischievous  boy,  and  wrote  verses  at  the 
age  of  twelve. 

In  1799,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  he  was  apprenticed  to  his  uncle 
William  to  learn  the  ways  of  the  dry  goods  trade. 

It  was  a  duty  of  the  apprentice  to  go  at  least  once  a  year  on  horse- 
back to  places  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  to  collect 
debts  to  the  firm.  As  payments  were  made  in  coin  which  was  carried 
in  his  saddle-bags,  during  those  journeys  he  was  not  always  free  from 
apprehension  of  highwaymen. 

While  travelling  on  those  collecting  tours  his  sisters,  Sally  and 
Betsy,  occasionally  cheered  him  with  rhyming  epistles,  sometimes 
jocularly  alluding  to  his  scientific  and  literary  tastes.  » 

For  instance,  Sally  wrote  : 

"  From  coatings,  cloths  and  bombazines. 
Modes,  ribbons,  chintzes  and  moreens, 
Say,  does  not  oft  thy  fancy  rove  ? 

*  >vc  H=  *  *  H:  >i= 

J    Or,  when  in  packing  box  thou'rt  placed 
With  all  mercantile  powers  graced  ; 
Surrounded  half  way  to  thy  neck, 
With  callimancos,  muslin,  check. 
Say,  is  thy  active  roving  mind 
Chained  to  the  spot  where  thou'rt  confined  ? 
Or  does  it  wander,  day  by  day, 
To  chemistry  or  algebra  ?  « 

Say,  does  the  microscopic  wonder 
Keep  merchandizing  tumults  under? 
Or,  does  the  bright  electric  fire 
Bid  all  inferior  thoughts  retire?" 

Again,  his  sister  Elizabeth,  commonly  called  Betsy,  who  often  con- 
tributed stanzas  to  the  Portfolio,  wrote  to  him,  with  other  lines  : 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  18 

"  While  fancy  paints  and  wishes  roam 
We  strive  to  fix  content  at  home  ; 
Yet  wishes  warm  and  fancies  free 
Are  wafted  from  our  hearts  to  thee. 
Oft  times,  a  social  hour  we  spend 
In  converse  with  a  favorite  friend. 
We  talk  of  women,  books,  and  men 
But  not  a  word  of  oxygen. 
No  chemical  discussion  passes — 
The  alkalies  and  all  the  gasses. 
Till  thy  return,  are  laid  aside. 
Yet  then,  I  trust,  we  shall  compare — 
With  sage  experience  for  our  guide — 
The  different  properties  of  air, 
Whether  'tis  best,  at  home  abiding 
When  chilling  northern  blasts  prevail. 
Or,  over  hills  and  mountains  riding. 
To  catch  fair  Nature's  purest  gale — 

"  My  vein  of  rhyme  is  exhausted.  When  I  write  again,  it  will,  I 
trust,  be  at  full  tide." 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Wister,  in  1801-2,  attended  a  course  of  lectures  on 
chemistry  by  Professor  James  Woodhouse  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, then  on  Fourth  Street,  south  of  Arch  Street,  not  far  from 
his  own  residence.  Influenced  by  a  notion  that  he  might  adopt  medi- 
cine as  his  profession,  he  at  the  same  time  attended  some  of  the  ana- 
tomical lectures  of  his  kinsman,  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  chemical  course  he  arranged  to 
continue  his  study  of  the  subject  experimentally  with  Dr.  Adam 
Seibert,  a  German  apothecary  and  chemist,  recently  established  in  his 
neighborhood.  The  doctor,  who  was  also  a  mineralogist,  had  brought 
with  him  from  Germany  a  cabinet  of  European  minerals,  the  first 
imported  to  this  country.^ 

Perceiving  how  useful  and  convenient  such  a  cabinet,  for  reference, 
must  be  to  the  student,  Mr.  Wister  at  once  began  to  form  a  similar 
collection  for  himself;  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  made  it  in 
quality  and  interest  second  only  to  Seibert's.     He  had  gathered  from 

1  Dr.  Adam  Seibert's  cabinet  of  minerals  was  bequeathed  by  his  son  Henry  to  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 


14  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

their  natural  positions  specimens  of  all  minerals  he  could  find  within 
thirty  miles  of  the  city,  and  had  become  a  working  mineralogist.  In 
this  connection  it  seems  proper  to  mention  that  in  1814  he  attended  a 
course  of  lectures  on  mineralogy  delivered  in  Philadelphia  by  Pro- 
fessor Parker  Cleaveland,  of  Bowdoin  College,  and  was  ever  after- 
wards his  friend  and  correspondent.  In  the  second  edition  of  his 
Treatise  on  Mineralogy,  1822,  Professor  Cleaveland  cites  him  as 
authority  for  the  localities  of  many  minerals. 

In  1803,  about  the  beginning  of  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  age,  he 
succeeded  his  uncle  in  business  under  the  firm  name  of  John  and 
Charles  J.  Wister. 

The  Friends  informed  him,  November  25,  1803,  substantially  that 
he  had  forfeited  his  birthright  in  their  meeting,  because  he  had  paid 
a  State  militia  fine. 

He  married,  December  15, 1803,  Rebecca,  a  daughter  of  Joseph  and 
Esther  Bullock.  She  died  September  20,  1812,  leaving  him  four 
children.     Two  of  them  are  still  living. 

His  mother,  Lowry  Wister,  died  February  15,  and  his  sister  Sally 
April  28,  1804. 

In  a  newspaper  notice  of  these  two  ladies  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  who 
was  at  the  time  the  family  physician,  said  :  "  Few  families  have  ever 
furnished  two  such  shining  examples  of  prudence,  piety  and  eminent 
acquirements." 

In  1812,  in  the  early  summer,  Mr.  Wister  moved  to  the  Germantown 
homestead,  which  his  uncle  William  had  bequeathed  to  him,  and  con- 
tinuously resided  in  it  ever  after. 

He  married,  December  4,  1817,  Sarah,  a  daughter  of  John  and 
Sarah  Whitesides,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons  and  three  daughters. 
She  died  in  her  seventy-first  year  May  31,  1869. 

In  1819,  he  and  his  brother  John  retired  from  business  ;  and  both 
were  permanently  settled  in  Germantown. 

At  that  period  and  for  several  years  after  the  Germantown  and 
Norristown  Railroad  was  opened,  1831,  Germantown  was  a  suburban 
village,  mostly  built  along  the  main  street  in  the  midst  of  farms  on 
either  side  of  it.  The  Wister  homestead  had  connected  with  it  a  large 
gavden  of  fruits  and  flowers,  a  barn  and  farm  of  many  acres  under 
cultivation.  To  his  many  occupations  the  proprietor  added,  in  1824, 
the  care  of  bees  and  in  time  became  a  noted  bee-master.^     Besides 

1  See,  American  Quarterly  Review,  June,  1828.     Carey,  Lea  &  Carey,  Philadelpliia. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  15 

horticulture,  bee  culture  and  agriculture,  in  which  he  was  much  in- 
terested, he  had  other  pursuits. 

From  May  7,  1810,  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  Germantown  Academy, 
Secretary  of  the  board  from  May  3,  1813,  till  1842  when  he  resigned, 
having  been  active  in  all  its  affairs  during  thirty-two  yeai's. 

He  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  mineralogy  and  geology  in  the 
winter  of  1820-21  ;  and  a  course  of  lectures  on  chemistry  in  the 
winter  of  1821-22,  free  to  the  pupils  of  the  Academy  but  others  were 
charged  a  small  fee  for  the  course.  The  net  proceeds  of  both  courses 
were  spent  in  the  purchase  of  globes,  maps,  etc.,  etc.,  for  the  Academy. 

He  was  a  director  of  the  Bank  of  Germantown,  during  fifty  years 
from  its  foundation  1814,  till  his  death,  and  Secretary  of  the  board 
thirteen  years,  till  Nov.  18,  1827.  He  was  also  for  many  years  a 
manager  of  the  Perkiomen  Turnpike  Company. 

Yet,  his  serious  occupation  was  the  study  of  botany,  mineralogy, 
mechanics,  astronomy. 

He  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  Jan. 
1811 ;  and  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  elected  him  a  corre- 
spondent in  1814. 

His  familiarity  with  plants  indigenous  to  the  city  region  and  country 
surrounding  it  brought  him  into  pleasant  intercourse  and  correspond- 
ence with  prominent  American  botanists.  They  were  pleased  to  con- 
sult his  herbarium  and  visit  his  garden. 

At  the  back  part  of  his  dwelling  he  constructed,  1819,  a  workshop 
which  was  in  time  furnished  with  turners',  clockmakers',  carpenters', 
engravers',  blacksmiths',  tinsmiths'  tools  and  implements  which  he 
skilfully  used.  In  this  shop  he  spent  much  of  his  time,  especially  in 
bad  weather.  He  turned  tops  for  the  boys  preferable  to  any  they 
could  buy  ;  mended  his  neighbors'  clocks,  made  mechanical  puzzles, 
etc.,  etc.  He  delighted  in  clocks,  possessed  many,  no  two  exactly 
alike,  and  found  pleasure  in  keeping  them  so  regulated  that  they 
harmoniously  struck  the  hours. 

Mr.  Isaiah  Lukens,  a  well  known  clock  maker,  machinist  and 
mineralogist,  who  was  an  intimate  friend,  passed  many  an  hour  with 
him  in  the  workshop ;  and  sometimes  Mr.  Joseph  Saxton — notable  for 
his  sensitive  m.odesty — also  an  intimate,  joined  them.  He  was  an 
eminently  ingenious  mechanic,  who  had  devised  and  constructed  im- 
proved machinery  for  the  U.  S.  Mint  in  Philadelphia.  He  invented 
an  automatic  ruling  machine  for  accurately  engraving  coins  and 
medals  of  all  kinds ;  and  for  many  years  up  to  the  close  of  his  life, 


16  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

he  had  charge  of  the  standards  of  the  weights  and  measures  of  the 
United  States  in  "Washington. 

Mr.  "Wister's  interest  in  clocks  and  their  regulation  rendered  the  pos- 
session of  means  to  ascertain  time  accurately  very  desirable.  Accept- 
ing the  suggestion  of  his  friend  he  built  an  observatory  in  1835 ;  and 
Mr.  Lukens  constructed  and  set  up  in  it  an  astronomical  clock  and 
transit  instrument. 

They  observed  a  transit  of  Mercury  in  1845,  and  reported  their 
work  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society.^ 

To  what  degree,  if  any,  his  home  surroundings  had  a  formative 
influence  on  the  character  of  Dr.  Caspar  Wister  is  uncertain,  purely 
conjectural. 

Dr.  Caspar  Wister. 

Caspar  Wister,  the  first  child  of  Charles  J.  Wister  and  his  second 
wife,  was  born  Sept.  15,  1818,  in  the  Germantown  homestead. 

At  an  early  age  he  was  sent  to  a  day-school  kept  by  Miss  Rooker. 
In  1828  he  entered  the  Germantown  Academy  and  remained  in  it  five 
or  six  years. 

Germantown  was  still  a  village.  The  deportment  and  ways  of 
many  of  the  boys  while  out  of  school  were  not  satisfactory.  Caspar 
had  never  been  much  restrained  at  home ;  was  somewhat  insubordi- 
nate, irascible,  self-willed  ;  and  was  probably  a  popular  leader  in  mis- 
chievous pranks  among  his  playmates. 

He  was  in  his  sixteenth  year  when  it  was  determined  to  remove  him 
entirely  from  the  influence  of  this  connection.  His  father,  accom- 
panied by  his  mother,  took  him  in  his  carriage  to  West  Chester,  and 
entered  him  there,  June  4, 1834,  in  the  Institute  for  Young  Gentlemen, 
a  boarding  school,  the  proprietor  of  which,  Mr.  A.  Bolmar,  managed 
his  pupils  so  judiciously  that  they  properly  observed  the  rules  of  his 
establishment,  and  the  most  wayward  boys  soon  became  amenable  to 
discipline. 

The  correspondence  between  Caspar  and  his  family  portrays  the 
prominent  features  of  the  boy's  character,  as  well  as  the  afiectionate 
nature  of  the  inmates  of  his  happy  home.  It  suggests  that  every  thing 
there  was  redolent  of  harmony,  the  special  interests  of  one  being  the 
common  interest  of  all.     While  out  of  school  each  of  the  juveniles  had 

^  Labour  of  a  Long  Life;  A  Memoir  of  Charles  J.  "Wister.  By  C.  J.  W.,  Jr.  2  vols. 
8vo.,  pp.  200-210.  Germantown,  1866.  This  memoir,  printed  for  private  circulation 
only,  is  the  authority  for  many  facts  and  dates. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER,  l7 

his  petty  occupation.  A  flower  patch  in  the  garden,  with  pet  chickens, 
or  pigeons,  or  canaries,  or  cat  or  dog  were  cared  for;  and  the  swarming 
of  bees  was  a  notable  event.  In  the  evening  all  gathered  around  a 
table  in  the  sitting-room,  the  ladies  with  their  sewing  and  the  boys 
with  their  lessons  ;  and,  when  the  sky  was  clear,  they  were  out  o'  doors 
observing  the  stars  under  their  father's  instruction. 

Those  letters,  commonplace  as  they  are,  bring  quite  pleasantly  into 
view  the  varied  surroundings — supposed  to  exert  a  formative  influence 
on  character — amidst  which  he  greAV  from  boyhood  to  full  maturity; 
but  little  more  than  allusion  to  them  can  be  made. 

The  day  after  returning  to  Germantown,  June  6,  his  mother  wrote 
to  him  about  the  homeward  journey  by  way  of  the  Yellow  Springs  and 
Norristown,  where  they  lodged,  and  at  the  close  of  her  letter,  said ; — 
"  I  hope  you  are  pleased  with  your  school,"  etc. 

His  sister  Mary  wrote  to  him  June  9  : — "  We  miss  you  very  much 
although  you  were  such  a  plague,  etc. ;"  and  his  father,  June  11,  sub- 
stantially that  all  his  boyish  faults  had  passed  from  his  memory. 

In  his  first  letter  from  West  Chester,  which  is  without  date  but  post- 
marked June  13,  Caspar  addressed  his  father  and  mother  jointly,  and 
said ; — "  I  received  your  letter  on  Sunday  last  and  was  very  glad  to 
get  it.  *  *  *  Tell  Mary  I  received  her  letter  this  morning  and 
was  much  pleased  with  it.  *  *  *  I  have  a  bed  to  myself,  but  there 
are  six  of  us  in  a  room.  They  keep  as  good  a  table  as  we  have  at 
home.  *  *  *  On  Saturday  afternoon  we  all  went  into  the  woods. 
We  get  up  at  five  o'clock  every  morning  which  makes  the  day  so  long 
that  it  seems  as  long  as  a  week  did  at  home.  *  *  *  "VVe  have  four 
teachers  *  *  A  cloudy  day  makes  me  so  homesick  I  can  hardly 
talk.  This  is  a  great  place  for  birds  in  the  morning  from  five  till  about 
eight  o'clock.  The  robins  are  singing  all  around  us,  and  sitting  all 
around  on  the  fences  and  tops  of  the  trees  and  chimnies.  Give  my 
love  to  all  and  write  often.     I  remain  your  affectionate  son, 

"  Caspar  Edmond  Wister." 

At  the  time  he  was  named  some  proposed  to  call  him  simply  Edwin 
and  others,  Caspar.  After  fairly  considering  the  subject,  it  was  agreed 
by  those  interested  that  his  name  should  be  as  he  signed  his  letter. 
But  a  few  years  afterwards  Caspar  himself  dropped  Edmond. 

In  a  letter,  June  27,  it  is  stated  in  substance  that  a  cousin  in  the 
sophmore  class  told  his  father  it  was  wrong  to  send  him  to  a  boarding- 
school — that  he  ought  to  have  gone  to  the  University,  because  there 
the  boys  need  not  study  unless  they  please. 


18  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

Caspar  wrote  July  18  ; — "  I  have  been  in  West  Chester  more  than  a 
month  and  it  becomes  more  natural  to  me.  We  had  no  school  on  the 
Fourth,  and  we  went  morning  and  evening  to  the  Court  House  and 
heard  the  Declaration  of  Independence  read  and  several  orations 
delivered  by  some  of  the  young  lawyers  of  the  place.  In  the  morning 
it  was  read  by  a  little  boy  not  as  big  as  Owen  *  *  *  *  Qu  g^t- 
urday  we  went  out  the  Strausburg  road  to  the  Brandy  wine  to  swim. 
It  is  a  beautiful  place  and  we  had  a  very  pleasant  time.  I  found  some 
flowers  that  I  dont  think  you  will  know.  I  have  tried  to  dry  them  to 
take  home  with  me  *  *  *  j  have  seen  but  one  stand  of  bees  since 
I  have  been  here.  It  consisted  of  about  eight  hives  in  the  old  German 
style  of  boxes.  I  have  discovered  a  great  difference  between  my  letters 
and  those  of  the  other  boys.  Theirs  contain  ^ve  dollar  Jio^es,  and  there 
are  none  in  mine,  which  is  a  great  difference.  I  want  to  buy  a  small 
box  to  put  minerals  and  such  things  in  and  keep  in  my  trunk  *  *  * 
N.  B.  remember,  five  dollars." 

Caspar  was  at  home  during  the  August  vacation. 

He  wrote  to  his  father  and  mother  Sept.  24  ; — "  I  arrived  here  safe 
after  a  very  pleasant  ride  on  the  Columbia  rail  road,  at  about  half 
after  six  o'clock.     Mr.  Bolmar  did  not  expect  that  I  would  return. 

*  *     *     I  havd  been  attending  a  course  of  lectures  on  astronomy. 

*  *     *     I  wish  you  would  get  my  Grceca  Minora  of  Will." 

A  request  often  repeated  to  date  his  letters  provoked  Caspar  to 
write,  "  Letter  begun  Oct.  25,  and  finished  Nov.  8,  half  past  ten  in  the 
morning."  He  was  dissatisfied  with  the  school  fare.  "Bolmar  gave 
us  for  dinner  the  other  day  pies  made  of  green  tomatoes  served  and 
sweetened  the  same  as  apple  pies.  They  were  the  worst  things  I  ever 
tasted.  *  *  *  Received  the  GrcBca  Minora  safe  and  sound, 
Saturday  in  October.  *  *  *  I^o  Christmas  presents  this  year. 
We  rise  before  the  sun  every  morning  and  breakfast  at  7.  The  rest 
of  the  day  is  passed  [as]  formerly." 

In  a  letter,  Dec.  8,  1834,  his  father  gave  a  detailed  account  of  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  observed  Nov.  30,  by  himself,  Lukens  and  Charley. 

Caspar  had  passed  the  Christmas  holidays  at  home.  He  wrote  to 
his  father  and  mother,  Jan.  15, 1835  ; — "  I  am  once  more  in  this  horrid 
place,  now  doubly  so  since  seeing  you.  From  the  day  of  my  arrival 
till  about  three  days  ago  I  have  been  terribly  home  sick,  but  am  now 
nearly  well.  *  *  *  A.11  here  is  very  different  from  home,  espe- 
cially the  eating.  It  is  worse  than  you  have  any  idea  of,  especially 
the  bread  and  butter." 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  19 

Caspar  wrote  Feb.  13,  that  he  had  received  a  long  looked  for  letter 
— that  except  from  his  father  and  Mary  he  had  not  received  a  letter 
from  any  member  of  the  family  since  his  return,  more  than  a  month — 
that  he  had  attended  lectures  on  phrenology,  and  witnessed  interesting 
experiments  in  natural  philosophy  and  chemistry. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  father,  I  want  to  consult  you  about  my  studies. 
I  think  when  I  have  finished  Grceca  Minora  to  give  up  the  study  of  the 
Greek  language  and  in  place  of  it  to  attend  closely  to  mathematics 
and  Euclid,"  etc.  etc. 

In  a  letter  to  his  mother,  March  7,  Caspar  said; — "I  now  pro- 
ceed to  answer  some  of  your  questions.  I  have  not  touched  a  card  in 
play  since  I  have  returned,  and  have  thought  of  the  five-dollar  note 
you  spoke  of  if  I  would  give  up  the  same.  It  would  come  very 
d  propos  at  present,  as  I  have  but  one  cent  and  a  half." 

His  father  wrote  to  him,  March  22,  substantially  that  he  had  received 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Bolmar  the  other  day  enclosing  his  bill,  and  was 
greatly  rejoiced  to  hear  from  him  that  he  had  conducted  himself  with 
much  greater  propriety  than  heretofore,  and  that,  as  a  small  return 
for  Mr.  Bolmar's  report  about  card-playing,  he  enclosed  a  bank  note, 
which  he  did  not  doubt  would  make  this  letter  the  most  agreeable  he 
had  received. 

Caspar  replied  March  28,  1835. 

"  I  received  your  very  interesting  letter  last  week,  and  I  assure  you 
it  was  the  most  interesting  that  I  have  ever  received  since  I  have  been 
in  West  Chester.  I  do  not  care  how  many  such  letters  you  send  me. 
They  will  always  be  agreeable.  You  cannot  think  how  proud  I  felt 
when  I  got  it  for  the  first  time  in  my  pocket." 

July  5,  1835,  his  father  wrote  to  him  in  substance  that  Bolmar  said 
that  he  learned  something,  but  was  too  fond  of  promiscuous  reading. 

Caspar  wrote  August  13,  1835  : — 

"  It  has  been  a  very  long  time  since  I  have  written  to  you,  but  I 
have  been  prevented  by  my  accident,  which  kept  me  in  bed  three 
weeks."  He  relates  that  while  playing  ball  in  the  yard  he  fell  upon  a 
piece  of  a  porter  bottle,  and  received  a  wound  on  the  back  of  his 
thigh,  an  inch  and  a  half  deep  and  two  and  a  half  inches  long. 

"  I  dont  know  why  Charles  should  want  to  go  to  boarding  school. 
He  had  better  go  to  the  House  of  Refuge  I  can  tell  him.  If  ever  he 
goes  he  will  soon  wish  to  be  at  home,"  etc. 

Probably  Caspar  spent  the  Christmas  vacation  of  1835,  at  home  and 

2 


20  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

did  not  return  to  West  Chester.  In  order  to  qualify  himself  to  be  a 
land  surveyor,  a  vocation  which  he  had  chosen  for  himself,  he  early 
in  the  year  1836,  entered  a  boarding  school,  of  which  the  Rev.  S. 
Aaron  was  principal,  at  Burlington,  N.  J.  His  time  there  passed 
pleasantly. 

In  a  letter  to  his  father  and  mother  May  23,  1836  he  says  ; — "  Tell 
Charley ;  last  night  I  swam  the  Delaware  and  was  not  more  than 
twenty  minutes  in  reaching  the  Pennsylvania  shore." 

He  addressed  them  again  August  21st. 

"  There  are  so  very  few  occurrences  taking  place  in  Burlington 
worthy  of  being  committed  to  paper  that,  when  the  postage  of  my  letter 
is  considered,  the  value  of  these  incidents  is  so  very  much  below  that 
of  sixpence,  that  I  cannot  write  often  through  motives  of  economy, 
*  *  *  I  go  a  boating  very  often  indeed.  I  never  yet  found  any 
thing  so  pleasant  as  rocking  in  a  boat  out  in  the  river  about  sunset, 
just  when  the  moon  begins  to  silver  the  water,  and  the  blue  hills  of 
Pennsylvania  to  grow  indistinct  in  the  distance.  I  sometimes  go  over 
to  Bristol  of  a  Saturday  afternoon  and  lounge  about,  and  see  the  people 
and  the  coal  come  down  the  Pennsylvania  canal,  or  the  New  York 
passengers  on  the  Trenton  Railroad.  *  *  *  *  j  shouldered  the 
chain  the  other  afternoon  and  went  out  with  Mr.  Aaron  to  survey  one 
of  the  curves  on  the  railroad." 

His  school  days  ended,  Caspar  resumed  his  residence  at  home,  about 
the  close  of  1836,  prepared  to  serve  the  public  as  a  land  surveyor. 
Two  years  were  passed,  trying  to  obtain  profitable  employment  in  his 
profession,  but  with  little  encouragement. 

December  4,  1838  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  assembled  at 
Harrisburg.  The  genuineness  of  certain  election  credentials  from  some 
districts  was  questioned,  their  legality  disputed.  Two  Houses  of  Rep- 
resentatives were  formed.  Each  claimed  that  it  alone  was  lawfully 
constituted.  The  Senate  refused  to  recognize  either.  A  mob  of  three 
or  four  hundred  Democrats,  sent  for  the  purpose,  it  was  asserted,  had 
possession  of  the  Capitol.  Their  turbulence  was  so  alarming  that  a 
Senator  escaped  through  a  window  of  the  Senate  chamber. 

The  turmoil  became  so  great  that  Governor  Ritner,  apprehensive  of 
bloodshed,  proclaimed  the  existence  of  rebellion,  and  required  General 
Robert  Patterson  who  commanded  the  first  division  of  volunteer 
militia  of  the  State  to  furnish  troops  to  keep  the  peace. 

Twelve  hundred  men  under  command  of  the  General  arrived  at 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  21 

Harrisburg  from  Philadelphia  Dec.  8,  by  the  Columbia  Rail  Road, 
and  were  detained  till  the  25th/ 

Caspar  Wister  joined  a  regiment,  of  which  his  townsman  and  friend 
Dr.  Thomas  F.  Betton  was  surgeon,  as  his  assistant.  It  is  evident  that 
professional  examination  did  not  precede  appointment  in  this  case. 
Nevertheless,  he  received  the  pay  of  an  assistant  surgeon  while 
employed. 

Up  to  that  time  he  was  the  first  of  his  kinsmen  to  engage  in  military 
service,  because  bearing  arms  was  repugnant  to  their  sense  of  religious 
duty.     Subsequently  however  several  of  them  served  with  credit  in  the  . 
late  rebellion  as  regimental  or  company  officers. 

This  riotous  disturbance  at  Harrisburg  made  by  political  partizans, 
was  called  the  Buckshot  War,  because  Governor  Ritner  had  directed 
the  volunteers  to  load  their  guns  with  buckshot  and  ball.  Though 
many  were  alarmed  nobody  was  wounded. 

Dispairing  of  lucrative  employment  in  his  vocation  at  home,  he  prob- 
ably imagined  that  a  country  where  settlers  were  many  and  increasing, 
land  sales  would  be  common;  and  for  such  reasons  the  services  of  a 
surveyor  would  be  in  constant  demand.  His  attention  was  directed 
to  Texas,  the  independence  of  which  had  been  recognized  by  the 
United  States  in  1837. 

Equipped  with  surveying  instruments  and  a  rifle,  he  sailed  from 
New  York,  Oct.  28,  1839,  for  Texas,  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  where 
he  arrived  Nov.  18  and  reached  Galveston  Nov.  20,  and  took  the  boat 
up  the  river  to  Houston.  He  proceeded  immediately  to  the  west.  In 
a  letter,  dated  Houston,  Dec.  28,  1839,  he  wrote  : — "You  may  imagine 
the  figure  I  cut,  mounted  on  a  mustang  poney,  about  half  tamed,  on  a 
Mexican  saddle,  leggings,  a  queer  blanket  coat,  and  around  my  waist 
a  broad  leathern  belt  in  which  were  placed  a  pair  of  pistols  and  a 
bowie  knife,  it  beiiig  necessary  to  travel  armed  in  this  country — par- 
ticularly when  travelling  alone,  as  I  was,  there  being  men  here  who 
might  take  advantage  of  an  unarmed  man,  should  his  money  be  seen ; 
and  you  are  frequently  meeting  some  prowling  Indians  who  are 
friendly  to  Texas,  but  more  through  fear  than  love." 

1  See  "Address  of  the  Hon.  Charles  B.  Penrose,  Speaker  of  the  Senate;  and  the 
Speeches  of  Messrs.  Fraley,  (City)  Williams,  Pearson  and  Penrose,  delivered  in  the 
Senate  of  Pennsylvania,  [March  1839]  on  the  subject  of  the  Insurrection  at  Harris- 
burg, at  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature  in  December  1838."  8vo.,  pp.  207.  Printed 
by  E.  Guyer,  Harrisburg  1839. 

Also,  History  of  Philadelphia— 1609  to  1884.  By  J.  Thomas  Scharf  and  Thompson 
Westcott.     Quarto.     L.  H.  Everts  &  Co.,  Philadelphia  1S84. 


22  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

This  journey  was  to  make  collections  for  a  cotton-shipper  from 
Kentucky,  and  led  him  over  "  the  best  lands  of  Texas."  He  travelled 
on  the  prairies  some  two  hundred  miles,  the  huts  of  settlers  being 
fifteen  to  twenty  miles  apart  and  the  roadways  very  indistinct.  "At 
night,"  he  says,  "  I  made  my  supper  on  corn-dodger ;  and,  wrapping 
myself  in  saddle-blankets,  with  my  head  on  my  saddle  bags  and  feet 
to  the  fire,  was  soon  sung  to  sleep  by  the  dismal  music  of  the 
wolves.     *     *     *     * 

"  There  is  nothing  doing  here  in  engineering.  I  have  turned  mer- 
chant ;  been  to  New  Orleans,  bought  some  $400  worth  of  goods  and 
consigned  them  to  men  here  at  so  much  per  cent. ;  and  at  the  same 
time,  I  am  broker  and  speculator  in  a  small  way,  so  that  I  pay  my 
expenses  and  manage  to  keep  an  eye  on  everything  around." 

His  experience  during  1840  was  unhappy.  While  at  Walnut  Bluff* 
on  the  Colorado,  in  May,  he  and  his  four  companions  were  taken,  about 
the  same  time,  with  "  bilious  remittent  fever."  In  this  condition  they 
were  obliged  to  wait  four  or  five  days  for  a  wagon  to  bring  them 
medicine  from  Houston.  Their  only  food  was  corn  bread  and  venison ; 
and  some  days  none  was  well  enough  to  prepare  it.  On  the  day  the 
wagon  arrived  he  took  ten  grains  of  calomel ;  two  days  after  fifteen 
grains,  and  the  next  day  ten  grains  of  tartar  emetic  without  relief  By 
advice  of  an  old  settler  he  took  forty  grains  of  calomel,  and  was  free 
from  fever  for  two  weeks.  It  then  returned,  and  he  "  again  broke  it " 
by  the  same  means.  The  fever  recurred  at  intervals  of  one  or  two 
weeks,  and  each  recurrence  was  met  with  the  forty  grains  of  cak  mel 
till  July.  Then  he  became  alarmed  on  account  of  the  quantity  of 
mercury  he  had  taken  to  which  he  ascribed  the  cramps  with  which  he 
was  afflicted,  and  resolved  to  travel  till  he  found  a  doctor. 

He  rode  two  hours  morning  and  evening  and  completed  thirty  miles 
before  another  attack.  He  stopped  at  the  house  of  a  settler  and  sent 
ten  miles  for  a  doctor,  but  in  spite  of  all  he  could  do  the  disease  con- 
tinued, with  pain  in  the  region  of  the  liver  and  night  sweats,  till  the 
middle  of  September.  Then  the  fever  became  intermittent  with  a 
much  swollen  spleen.  At  last  he  found  partial  relief,  with  a  relapse 
every  few  weeks.  He  had  pain  in  his  stomach,  which  "  refused  to  digest." 

In  October  while  chopping  a  limb  of  a  tree  to  be  used  in  construc- 
tion of  a  hut,  or  cabin  he  divided  the  bone  of  his  left  big  toe  and  split 
the  bone  of  the  second  toe,  the  axe  cutting  through  the  side  of  his  boot 
to  the  sole.  This  accident  caused  him  to  be  on  his  back  with  his  foot 
higher  than  his  head  during  four  weeks. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  23 

He  ends  his  long  letter,  dated  Houston  Dec.  28,  1840,  of  which  the 
above  is  a  summary,  saying ;  "  it  has  healed  up.  I  have  thrown  away 
my  crutches  and  walk  with  a  stick.  *  >i=  *  j  cannot  help  laughing 
when  I  look  back  over  my  misfortunes,  but  looking  forward  is  another 
matter." 

Without  announcing  his  coming,  he  appeared  at  home,  in  April 
1841,  bringing  with  him  a  cargo  of  deer  skins  which  he  sold  to  glove 
makers. 

During  this  visit  he  related  to  a  friend  that  while  travelling  with  a 
companion  over  the  prairie  they  lost  the  track.  Their  provisions  and 
ammunition  were  nearly  exhausted.  It  was  agreed  that  one  should 
remain  where  they  were  while  the  other  should  search  for  a  settlement. 
It  fell  to  Caspar's  lot  to  remain.  After  his  companion  had  left  him 
alone  he  kindled  a  fire,  and,  to  promote  its  burning,  heedlessly  poured 
upon  it  from  his  horn  some  grains  of  powder.  The  horn  exploded. 
After  the  flash  he  was  in  darkness.  He  had  been  totally  deprived  of 
sight.  His  condition  was  appalling.  Alone  on  the  prairie,  blind, 
without  food.  In  this  desperate  state,  unable  to  direct  his  move- 
ments, he  crawled  to  find  water  which  he  knew  was  not  far  off.  For- 
tunately he  reached  a  little  stream  and  by  freely  washing  partially 
recovered  his  sight.  His  companion  returned  after  an  absence  of  a 
few  days,  bringing  food  and  ammunition  in  time  to  rescue  him  from 
starvation.  His  sight  was  quite  restored ;  and  they  were  speedily  on 
their  way  once  more. 

He  remained  at  home  till  the  autumn  and  then  returned  to  Texas 
with  a  cargo  of  merchandize.  He  wrote,  Dec.  9, 1841,  that  he  "  found 
Houston  quite  healthy  and  business  good." 

As  soon  as  it  was  reported  that  Mexican  forces  had  invaded  Texas 
and  captured  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  every  one  who  could  ride  was 
armed  and  in  the  saddle  eager  to  fight. 

Caspar  left  Houston  as  a  private  in  a  company  of  mounted  rifles. 
He  wrote,  April  17,  1842,  just  after  he  returned  from  the  army, 
"Active  service  in  this  country  combines  all  the  hardships  that  can  be 
endured.  Our  bed  was  the  grass,  the  saddle  for  a  pillow,  without  tents 
or  covering  of  any  kind.  Rain  or  shine  we  had  only  saddle-blankets 
to  wrap  up  in.  Our  food  was  little  chips  of  jerked  beef,  heated  on  a 
ramrod  till  they  resembled  the  cinders  of  a  blacksmith's  forge,  and  just 
about  as  nourishing.  Of  bread  or  farinaceous  substance  of  any  descrip- 
tion we  had  none.  This  was  slim  diet  upon  which  to  ride  thirty  miles 
a  day,  stand  guard,  etc.     It  was  harder  work  than  soldiering  about 


24  W.   S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

Germantown  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  As  we  approached  San  Antonio 
preparations  were  made  for  battle,  and  I  rose  to  the  distinguished  rank 
of  Second  Sergeant,  which  exempted  me  from  guard  duty  and  placed 
me  in  the  proud  position  of  file  leader  of  the  first  squadron  of  our  com- 
pany. But  alas!  for  the  laurels.  The  Mexicans  would  not  fight, and 
retreated  from  San  Antonio  at  a  full  run.  We  took  possession  without 
firing  a  gun,  and  placed  the  Lone  Star  in  triumph  on  the  cross  of  the 
Cathedral. 

"After  travelling  250  miles,  100  of  them  through  a  country  inhabited 
by  Coraanchees,  without  a  vestige,  a  house  or  any  object  to  give  notice 
that  the  white  race  had  ever  trodden  this  wilderness,  it  was  a  singular 
feeling  to  find  myself  riding  down  the  streets  of  a  city,  dating  its  birth 
anterior  to  that  of  Philadelphia,  and  built  entirely  of  stone — its  palaces 
and  churches,  its  missions  and  cathedrals,  immense  in  extent,  grand  in 
conception  and  beautiful  in  construction,  all  sinking  in  confused  masses 
of  earth  from  which  they  originally  sprang.  A  few  more  visits  from  a 
Texas  army  and  the  hand  of  time  will  be  spared  the  work  of  crumb- 
ling their  monuments.  *  *  *  j  jgft  ^y  business  in  good  hands  ; 
and  if  I  had  been  killed,  you  would  have  been  written  to." 

In  the  same  year  he  was  again  in  the  array  of  Texas.  He  did  not 
receive  the  pay  due  for  this  service  till  1855,  a  modest  sum,  with  which 
he  procured  four  silver  goblets  and  had  inscribed  upon  each  a  "  lone 
star,"  the  national  symbol, and  beneath  it — "Service  of  the  Republic 
of  Texas.  1st  Sergeant  in  Sherman's  Mounted  Dragoons.  Mexican 
Invasion.    1842." 

Thus  end  the  records  of  Caspar's  sojourn  in  Texas,  which  was 
probably  extended  a  year  after  he  was  discharged  from  the  army. 
His  experience  as  a  merchant  had  not  been  quite  satisfactory.  In 
April  or  May,  1843,  he  came  home  not  to  return. 

He  began  to  study  medicine,  probably  in  the  autumn  of  1843,  in 
the  office  of  Dr.  George  B.  Wood,  and  in  March,  1846,  received  the 
degree  of  M.D.  from  the  medical  department  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  his  thesis  being  on  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  Medicine. 

The  same  year,  July  20,  he  married  Miss  Lydia  H.  Simmons,  of 
Philadelphia. 

He  was  now  in  his  twenty-eighth  year.  He  had  had  rough  experi- 
ence among  pioneers  and  adventurers  in  a  comparatively  new  country 
— then  an  asylum  for  such  as  go  to  Canada  now,  preferably  incog. — 
and  had  resumed  his  connection  with  a  better  mannered  society.  He 
was  no  longer  a  citizen  of  Texas.     He  had  become  Dr.  Caspar  Wister 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  25 

of  Philadelphia,  and  felt  no  doubt  that  he  was  bound  in  some  vague 
way  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  profession — to  work  for  the  welfare 
of  others,  and  not  exclusively  to  please  himself  and  increase  his  for- 
tune, as  he  had  done  in  Texas.     He  had  taken  leave  of  that  method. 

Starting  with  an  equipment  suitable  and  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
follow  his  vocation  successfully,  he  soon  laid  the  foundation  of  a  good 
practice.  His  attractive  manners  and  attentive  ways  won  for  him  the 
confidence  and  lasting  respect  of  his  patients  ;  and  his  professional  asso- 
ciates regarded  him  as  a  pains-taking  and  efficient  general  practitioner. 

In  Feb.,  1848,  his  wife  died,  leaving  an  infant  daughter  to  his  care. 

He  was  physician  of  the  "  Indigent  Widows  and  Single  Women's 
Society"  from  May,  1847,  till  1852.  In  the  annual  report  for  that 
year  it  is  stated  that  "  the  acknowledgments  of  the  Society  are  de- 
servedly due  to  Dr.  Caspar  Wister  for  his  honorary  though  laborious 
services  as  physician.  It  is  a  subject  of  sincere  regret  that  he  has  found 
it  necessary  at  last  to  resign  the  charge  he  has  borne  so  faithfully." 

From  1848  to  1869  he  was  physician  of  the  Association  for  the  Care 
of  Colored  Children — commonly  called  the  shelter  for  colored  orphans. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  House 
of  Refuge,  Jan.  9,  1849,  and  was  habitually  present  at  their  meetings 
during  thirty-nine  years,  till  his  death.  Though  he  was  not  a  con- 
sulting physician  of  the  House,  he  was  called  to  important  cases  and 
cheerfully  responded  to  all  demands  upon  his  time  and  skill. 

He  married  June  26,  1854,  Miss  Annis  Lee  Furness.  • 

From  1856  until  his  death  he  was  Medical  Examiner  of  the  Phila- 
delphia branch  of  the  New  York  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Phila- 
delphia from  June,  1851,  and  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
from  January,  1859. 

From  June  9,  1862,  to  June  16,  1863,  and  from  July  8  to  Oct.  6, 
1863,  he  served  at  the  U.  S.  A.  Satterlee  General  Hospital,  Philadel- 
phia, under  contract  as  an  acting  assistant  surgeon  U.  S.  Army. 

"  Being  a  warm  personal  friend  of  General  McClellan  he  accepted 
an  invitation  from  him  to  join  his  head  quarters  at  Yorktown.  He 
accompanied  the  army  on  its  advance  from  that  point  and  its  subse- 
quent movement  to  the  James  river,  being  present  at  all  the  battles 
during  that  period,  known  as  the  seven  day  battles."  ^ — June,  1862. 

1  Obituary  notice  of  Caspar  "Wister,  M.D.  By  Craig  Biddle.  Read  before  the 
American  Philosopliical  Society,  Oct.  4,  1S89. 


26  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Biological  Club,  a  dining  association,  com- 
posed of  members  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  of  Philadel- 
phia, from  1866. 

He  was  elected  a  Trustee  and  Director  of  the  Philadelphia  Library 
Company  in  1868. 

His  only  child  by  his  second  wife,  a  promising  boy  fourteen  years 
old,  died  Dec.  14, 1869. 

From  May  till  October  of  1873,  he  passed  in  Europe ;  and  in  the 
same  year  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Mutual  Assurance  Company. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Penn  Club,  May  31,  1878;  and 
about  the  same  time  President  of  the  Social  Art  Club,  of  which  he 
was  an  original  member.  The  name  of  the  association  was  changed, 
March,  1888,  to  l\ittenhouse  Club. 

In  the  morning  of  Aug.  21,  1879,  Dr.  Wister  accompanied  his  wife 
to  the  Pennsylvania  Rail  Road  depot  in  West  Philadelphia.  Just 
after  they  had  alighted  from  a  street  car  opposite  to  it,  an  impatient 
horse,  ridden  by  an  incapable  boy  struck  his  back  and  dashed  him 
headlong  against  one  of  the  iron  columns  which  support  the  roof  of 
the  approach  to  the  depot.  Although  his  frontal  bone  was  badly 
fractured,  near  the  left  temporal  ridge,  and  his  lower  limbs  were 
rigidly  extended,  his  consciousness  was  not  impaired.  He  gave  de- 
tailed instructions  for  his  conveyance  home,  and  directed  a  messenger 
where  to  find  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew,  who  had  engaged  to  meet  him  at 
.that  hour  in  consultation. 

Drs.  Agnew  and  Walter  F.  Atlee  conducted  his  case.  A  trephine 
was  applied  in  two  places,  the  depressed  bone  raised,  and  more  than 
twenty  fragments  removed.  His  intelligence  was  clear  throughout 
his  illness.  He  recovered  without  any  mental  detriment,  and,  except 
a  stiff  neck,  no  permanent  evil  seemed  to  follow  the  injury. 

Some  of  his  friends,  however,  entertained  a  notion  that  the  effects 
of  this  injury  in  some  manner  shortened  his  life,  though  nothing  in 
his  subsequent  career  can  be  cited  in  support  of  the  conjecture. 

Physically  he  was  a  typical  man,  and  up  to  the  date  of  the  accident 
his  health  had  been  generally  vigorous.  To  break  thin  ice  in  the 
Schuylkill  for  a  bath  ;  to  walk  ten  miles  to  dine  with  a  friend  in  the 
country  and  walk  home  after  dinner ;  to  swim  along  side  of  a  yacht 
underway,  with  a  line  fast  to  a  wrist,  were  to  him  delightful. 

His  interest  in  athletic  sports  led  him,  in  1860,  to  take  an  active  part 
in  forming  the  Philadelphia  Sparring  and  Fencing  Club.  He  was 
one  of  its  incorporators  in  1873,  and  its  president  from  1867.     It  has 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  27 

been  notably  prosperous  under  his  administration.  The  roll  of  its 
members  now  includes  the  names  of  five  hundred  gentlemen,  all  of 
unquestionable  standing. 

He  was  elected  a  Director  of  the  Philadelphia  Saving  Fund,  and 
president  of  the  Inspectors  of  the  County  Prison  in  1880.  Infirm 
health  induced  him  to  resign  the  office  in  Sept.,  1888. 

In  1886,  he  assisted  to  reestablish  the  Wistar  Association  which  had 
ceased  to  be  active  since  the  winter  of  1863-64,  because  during  that 
season  guests  sometimes  disturbed  the  social  harmony  of  the  Wistar 
parties  by  over-earnest  discussions  of  political  questions  connected 
with  the  rebellion.  Not  long  afterwards  the  Saturday  Club,  of  which 
Dr.  Wister  Avas  a  member,  superseded  the  Wistar  Association  and  con- 
tinued active  for  several  years. 

Only  a  fourth  of  the  score  of  corporations  with  which  he  was  asso- 
ciated was  medical.  The  purposes  of  the  rest  were  difierent,  perhaps 
discordant — scientific,  social,  financial — and  in  no  sense  congenial  in 
their  methods  or  proceedings;  and  yet  he  found  pleasure  in  con- 
tributing to  the  progress  of  each.  Habitually  prompt  to  decide,  firm 
of  purpose  and  punctual  to  his  appointments,  he  acceptably  discharged 
whatever  duties  fell  to  him  in  every  instance. 

In  the  course  of  his  career,  his  experience  of  men  and  things  had 
been  varied  and  wide ;  and  perhaps  therefore,  he  was  able  to  adapt 
himself  admirably  to  any  situation  in  which  he  happened  to  be  placed. 
His  friend,  the  Hon.  Craig  Biddle,  most  truly  said  of  him  that 
"although  no  man  was  less  bashful,  few  men  were  so  modest."^  And 
possibly  the  quality  here  implied  may  have  prevented  him  from  ever 
drifting  into  narration  of  reminiscences  of  himself  under  any  circum- 
stances. 

His  genial,  manly,  open  and  pleasing  address  constituted  in  him  a 
kind  of  magnetic  force  which  powerfully  attracted  and  influenced 
strangers  at  their  first  accost;  and  they,  quickly  perceiving  his  good 
sense,  at  once  gave  him  their  confidence,  but  without  getting  his  in 
return,  for  his  faith  in  men  was  notably  restricted. 

His  spirit  of  humor  enlivened  his  conversation,  and  his  literary 
compositions  which  were  too  few  and  seldom  printed.  As  specimens 
of  his  work  in  this  line  the  following  are  presented. 

Early  in  1877 — two  years  before  his  injury — neighbors  of  St.  Mark's 
Church  in  Locust  street,  complained  that  the  chiming  of  the  bells,  then 

1  Obituary  notice  of  Caspar  Wister,  M.D. 


28  W.   S,    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

recently  hung  up  in  its  steeple,  was  a  nuisance  and  brought  suit 
in  Court  to  have  it  abated.  Dr.  Wister  described  the  situation  in  the 
following  lines  for  the  amusement  of  his  friends, 

"  Concordia,  we  the  bell  shall  call." 

— Schiller. 

Tune.— The  Bells  of  Shandon. 

With  deep  vexation  and  execration 
I  wake  at  six  to  those  St.  Mark's  bells, 
That,  with  clash  and  jingle,  make  my  nerves  tingle. 
While  the  doctor's  visit  my  pulse  foretells, 
As  I  lie  quaking  and  the  house  is  shaking. 
With  the  noise  they're  making — 
I  dread  to  meet 

The  storm  that's  brewing, 

To  their  undoing. 
In  the  troubled  bedding  of  Locust  Street. 

From  Christ  Church  steeple,  o'er  the  humble  people 
AVho  dwell  around  it,  the  sweet  chimes  ring. 
And  add  a  savour  to  the  rest  from  labour. 
That  the  peaceful  Sabbath  is  sure  to  bring. 
But  here's  no  liking  to  the  din  and  smiting 
That  makes  indicting 

A  purpose  meet. 

For  the  roar  and  rumble, 

The  growl  and  grumble 
That  make  a  Bedlam  of  Locust  Street. 

There's  a  bell  whose  swinging  gives  out  no  ringing, 
And  I  hear  no  dinging  in  the  State  House  yard  ; 
And  where  its  rolling  looks  like  tolling 
I  stand  and  tremble  lest  my  hearing's  hard  ; 
For,  with  steeple  rocking  and  hammer  knocking, 

And  the  people  mocking, 
I  hear  no  more 

The  low  dull  mutter 

Those  dumb  lips  utter 
Than  the  Stone  Washington  before  the  door. 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  29 

I've  seen  belles  charming  for  vict'ry  arming 

With  beauty  conquer,  with  wit  compel, 

And  read  the  story,  in  legends  hoary, 

How  friends  fled  shrieking  from  the  passing  bell ; 

But  the  bell  that's  staying  and  keeps  on  swaying 

Is  but  delaying 

The  time  we'll  greet, 

When  saint  and  beauty 

Shall  unite,  in  duty 
To  drive  the  devil  out  of  Locust  Street. 

Two  years  after  fracturing  his  skull.  Dr.  Wister,  the  guest  of  his 
friend  Mr.  H.  C.  Lea  on  board  of  the  yacht,  Vega,  visited  the  West 
Indies,  and  some  months  after  returning  home,  published  in  Lippin- 
cott's  Magazine  for  1883  ; — "A  Cruise  among  the  Windward  Islands 
— The  Log  of  the  Vega."  The  article  is  a  fair  sample  of  his  literary 
ability.  A  few  extracts  from  it  are  presented  to  show  his  style  and 
the  character  of  his  humor  in  prose. 

The  Vega  arrived  at  Barbadoes  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  In 
this  connection  it  is  recorded  in  the  Log  that, 

"  Sunday  was  a  day  always  sanctified  to  us  by  the  absence  of  cards 
and  the  presence  of  plum-dufi",  a  day  devoted  to  in — and  intro — spec- 
tion — inspection  of  habiliments  ofien  ending  in  looking  up  the  diddy- 
bag,  while  introspection  gradually  slid  into  sleep." 

^  ;{;  ^  ^  ^j;  >j< 

"  The  mango  is  a  very  favorite  fruit,  about  the  size  and  color  of  a 
fine  yellow  plum.  The  pulp  is  very  light  yellow  and  tastes  like  a  mild 
turpentine  stupe.  The  skin  is  leather  and  its  contents  are  fibres  and 
bristles.  There  is  no  amount  of  personal  intimacy  that  would  warrant 
any  two  persons  of  either  sex  in  sitting  down  together  to  eat  mangoes, 
for  the  rending  of  the  fibres,  the  dripping  of  juice,  and  the  drawing  out 
of  bristles,  unite  to  produce  so  unseemly  and  unclean  an  exhibition 
that  this  fruit  should  be  indulged  in  only  in  the  privacy  of  one's  own 
bath  room  and  in  a  sitz  bath  to  the  chin." 

:ic  ^  :{;  *  *  * 

"  With  Antigua  to  windward  we  passed  Redonda,  a  peak  of  rock 
rising  sheer  six  hundred  feet  out  of  the  water ;  one  side  of  it  is  perfectly 
smooth  and  straight,  and  seems  made  for  American  embellishments, 
such  as  '  Use  Purifying  Pills,'  or  '  Two  thousand  miles  to  Wana- 
maker's.'  " 


30  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

"  Mount  Nevis  enjoys  a  local  celebrity  for  its  sheep,  and  the  steward 
went  on  shore  and  procured  some  diaphanous  mutton — a  sheep  that 
cast  no  shadow,  not  because  the  sun  was  directly  over  its  head,  but 
from  lack  of  substance — a  sheep  which  if  left  to  live  might  in  time 
have  developed  progressively  into  a  burning  glass.  When  we  got  him, 
all  chance  of  animal  development  was  long  past.  We  found  that  his 
flesh  when  cooked  broke  with  a  vitreous  fracture." 

yi:  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

"At  six  p  M.  we  passed  Saba,  its  coast  iron-bound,  and  without  land- 
ings except  in  favorable  states  of  the  weather.  The  island  is  an  irreg- 
ular plateau  two  thousand  eight  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  diversified 
by  precipitous  rocks,  sharp  acclivities  and  ravines.  Through  one  of 
these,  called  the  Ladder,  the  town  is  reached,  around  which  is  found 
the  only  cultivation — that  of  potatoes,  which  are  sold  among  the  other 
islands.  The  population,  amounting  to  one  thousand  eight  hundred, 
is  mainly  devoted  to  the  raising  of  chickens.  From  the  sea  the  town, 
with  its  white  houses  and  red  roofs,  looked  exceedingly  neat  and 
pretty.  The  island  belongs  to  Holland  ;  its  language  is  English.  The 
people,  almost  all  either  Simmons  or  Hazel  by  name,  largely  send 
their  children  to  Paris  to  be  educated.  They  are  famous  for  building 
a  class  of  small  vessels,  although  they  have  no  port.  The  town,  nine 
hundred  and  sixty  feet  above  the  sea,  is  named  the  Bottom, — which  is 
quite  in  keeping  with  the  other  anomalies  of  Saba." 

June  21,  1882,  Delaware  Breakwater.  "And  here  we  took  the  trade 
wind  once  more, — that  of  the  region,  which  blows  unceasingly  through 
the  funnels  of  the  tugs." 

The  name  of  Dr.  Caspar  Wister  was  placed  on  the  roll  of  the  fellows 
of  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  January  1848. 

Between  the  years  1852  and  1874  he  was  frequently  elected  a  dele- 
gate from  the  College  to  the  American  Medical  Association.  At  the 
meeting  of  that  body,  in  1855,  he  was  appointed  its  Treasurer  and  a 
member  of  its  Publication  Committee.  On  retiring  from  these  posi- 
tions, in  1877,  his  services  were  noticed  as  follows ; — 

"At  the  twenty-eighth  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  at  Chicago,  June  8,  1877,  on  motion  of  Dr.  P.  F.  Hibberd 
of  Indiana; — Resolved,  That  this  Association,  in  view  of  the  retirement 
of  the  gentleman  who,  for  twenty-two  years,  has  discharged  the  respon- 
sible and  laborious  duties  of  that  situation,  desires  in  this  manner  to 
express  its  high  appreciation  of,  and  full  satisfaction  with  the  prompt- 
ness and  completeness  with  which  Caspar  Wister  has  discharged  the 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  31 

incumbent  obligations  of  its  financial  agent,  for  so  many  years,  and 
hereby  tenders  to  him  the  sinqerest  thanks  of  the  Association  for  such 
long  and  honorable  service." 

Being  a  delegate  from  the  College  to  that  body,  he  was  appointed 
Treasurer  of  the  International  Medical  Congress,  which  met  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1876.  After  settling  the  affairs  of  the  office.  Dr.  Wister 
transferred  to  the  College,  Feb.  4,  1880,  $800,  the  balance  of  the  fund 
of  the  Congress  in  his  custody,  to  establish  the  International  Medical. 
Congress  Trust  Fund,  the  income  thereof  to  be  applied  to  illustrate 
the  Transactions  of  the  College. 

In  1860,  Dr.  Wister  contributed  to  the  first  building  fund  of  the 
college ;  and  from  Dec.  1882  was  an  efficient  member  of  its  Committee 
on  Finance. 

Many  months  prior  to  the  close  of  his  life  his  good  health  began  to 
fail ;  digestion  was  impaired,  and  his  appearance  and  movements  signi- 
fied to  a  close  observer  that  he  was  in  some  degree  an  invalid.  Then, 
he  had  frequent  attacks  of  intense  gastric  suffering  which  were  con- 
trollable only  by  the  hypodermic  use  of  morphia.  Organic  disease 
and  malignant  disease  were  sometimes  suspected,  notwithstanding  that 
small  tophi,  which  had  long  been  observable  on  the  terminal  phalanges 
of  his  fingers,  suggested  gout.  Many  weeks  in  anticipation  of  the  end, 
he  directed  that  a  post  mortem  of  himself  should  settle  his  doubt,  re- 
marking at  the  time,  in  a  spirit  of  grim  humor,  that  he  would  like  to 
be  present,  for  he  was  sure  it  would  be  interesting. 

Convinced  for  a  long  time  that  his  recovery  was  hopeless  he  serenely 
awaited  the  coming  end,  and,  as  sane  men  always  do,  acquiesced  in 
the  inevitable. 

He  peacefully  died  at  four  o'clock,  a.  m.,  Dec.  20,  1888. 

His  funeral  was  after  the  manner  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  He 
approved  of  their  doctrine  generally,  and  irregularly  was  present  at 
their  Sabbath  meetings. 

He  bequeathed  his  moderately  ample  estate  to  his  wife  and  daughter. 

Several  of  the  Societies  with  which  Dr.  Wister  was  associated  ex- 
pressed the  sense  of  their  loss  in  formal  resolutions.  Extracts  from 
them  will  be  sufficient  testimony  of  their  appreciation  of  his  worth  and 
services. 

December  21,  1888,  "  Resolved,  That  the  officers  and  members  or 
the  Philadelphia  Fencing  and  Sparring  Club  desire  to  inscribe  on 
their  minutes  an  expression  of  the  lasting  obligations  which  Dr.  Caspar 
Wister  has  conferred  upon  them  by  the  zeal  and  sagacity  with  which 


32  W.    S.    W.    RUSCHENBERGER, 

he  has  directed  their  Organization,  and  which,  in  a  material  way  no 
less  than  in  the  sentiments  of  respect  and  affection  which  he  has  every- 
where inspired,  have  made  this  Organization  itself  a  monument  to  his 
honored  memory." 

A  portrait  of  Dr.  Wister  in  oil  has  been  hung  in  their  club-house. 
The  following  is  from  the  Minutes  made  by  the  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  House  of  Refuge,  December  27,  1888. 

"  Elected  to  this  Board  in  1849,  for  many  years  and  until  the  severe 
accident  which  curtailed  his  usefulness,  and  indirectly  was  the  cause 
of  his  death,  he  was  always  found  most  faithful  and  energetic  in  pro- 
moting the  best  interests  of  the  House  of  Refuge,  as  well  as  of  the 
County  Prison,  and  with  kindred  institutions  where  his  excellent  ex- 
ecutive abilities,  wise  counsel  and  eloquent  and  incisive  address  weie 
always  highly  appreciated  by  his  colleagues. 

"  His  kindly  and  courteous  and  general  manner  greatly  endeared 
him  to  his  associates  who  will  long  hold  in  affectionate  remembrance 
his  many  good  qualities  of  head  and  heart." 

The  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia,  January  5,  1889,  Resolved, 
"  That  in  him  we  have  lost  one  of  our  most  valued  associates,  whose 
rigid  conception  of  duty  led  him  to  discharge  ably  and  conscientiously 
all  the  responsibilities  of  life,  and  whose  rare  natural  gifts  and  varied 
culture  invested  with  a  peculiar  charm  his  personal  intercourse  with 
all  who  were  privileged  to  reckon  themselves  among  his  friends." 

The  Rittenhouse  Club  recorded  a  "  minute  to  the  memory  of  the 
late  president,"  Jan.  7,  1889.     The  following  is  an  extract  from  it. 

"  Dr.  Wister  who  was  of  the  finest  type  of  manly  vigor,  met  un- 
fortunately with  an  accident  which  sapped  his  vitality  and  eventually 
caused  his  death. 

"  The  untold  sufferings  which  he  has  endured  for  the  last  few  years 
were  known  only  to  his  family.  The  heroic  firmness  with  which  he 
faced  his  inevitable  fate,  the  cheerful  alacrity  with  which  he  performed 
all  his  duties  and  the  unrufiled  exterior  which  concealed  the  tortures 
which  he  suffered,  made  it  almost  impossible  to  believe  that  his  life 
hung  by  a  thread  and  that  he  was  fully  conscious  of  it. 

"  He  felt,  if  ever  man  felt,  that  it  was  not  necessary  that  he  should 
live,  but  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  perform  to  the  last  hour  of  his 
life  every  duty  that  he  had  undertaken.  No  soldier  ever  died  at  his 
post  with  calmer  courage  or  serener  port  than  he  of  whom  we  are  now 
speaking. 

"He  possessed,  as  we  all  know,  the  most  genial  nature      To  the 


SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER.  33 

young  and  the  old,  to  the  man  of  business  and  to  the  man  of  leisure, 
at  the  hospital  and  in  the  prison,  his  presence  was  as  welcome  as  at  the 
play-ground,  where  he  mingled  with  the  most  youthful  of  his  friends. 

"  His  popularity  arose  not  from  any  easiness  of  disposition,  but  from 
the  profound  regard  for  his  manly  character.  Open,  frank,  decided 
and  truthful,  his  convictions,  from  their  sincerity,  impressed  themselves 
upon  everyone  whom  he  met,  and,  though  you  might  not  agree  with 
them,  it  was  impossible  not  to  respect  them.  With  the  sternest  sense 
of  honor  he  had  the  gentleness  of  a  woman  toward  those  whose  weaker 
nature  had  been  the  cause  of  their  deviation  from  the  path  of  recti- 
tude.    While  he  could  not  understand  it,  he  would  always  pity  it." 

The  Rittenhouse  Club  had  painted  several  years  ago,  by  a  skilful 
artist,  an  admirable  portrait  of  Dr.  Wister. 

The  following  is  taken  from  another  tribute  to  his  memory.  It 
was  resolved,  Jan.  10,  1889,  that ; — 

"  The  Directors  of  the  Mutual  Assurance  Company  desire  to  express 
their  grief  at  the  death  of  their  associate  Dr.  Caspar  Wister,  for  fif- 
teen years  a  member  of  this  Board.  His  directness  of  character,  his 
steadfast  honor  and  his  careful  attention  to  every  duty  made  him  an 
admirable  representative  and  guardian  of  the  large  interests  committed 
to  our  care. 

"  His  cultivation  and  knowledge  of  men  and  books  gave  to  his  com- 
panionship a  charm  of  rare  quality,  made  more  delightful  by  a  certain 
flavor  in  his  manner  of  the  courtesy  and  quiet  of  another  day,  as  a  just, 
honorable  and  careful  man,  we  shall  miss  him  from  our  business,  and 
as  a  refined  gentleman  his  loss  will  be  long  felt  in  hours  of  social 
intercourse." 

The  following  paragraphs  are  taken  from  a  memorial  unanimously 
adopted  Jan.  11, 1889,  by  The  Philadelphia  Saving  Fund  Society. 

"  Few  men  of  his  time  have  held  so  high  a  place  in  the  esteem  and 
afiection  of  the  gentlemen  of  Philadelphia  as  our  late  associate  Dr. 
Caspar  Wister,  whose  death,  on  the  20th  of  December,  1888,  we  now 
sorrowfully  record. 

"Born  on  the  15th  of  September,  1818,  at  the  ancestral  home  in 
Germantown,  Dr.  Wister  was  trained,  educated  and  developed  in  the 
best  social  atmosphere  of  his  country,  and  his  life  and  character  illus- 
trated the  truth  of  his  favorite  maxim — '  Noblesse  oblige.' 

^  ^~  >i:  ^  ^  ^ 

"  His  appointment  to  this  Board  in  December,  1882,  was  hailed  with 
pleasure  by  all  its  members  and  was  recognized  by  Philadelphians  as 
an  addition  to  its  strength. 


34  SKETCH    OF    CASPAR    WISTER. 

"His  duties  here  were  wisely,  faithfully  and  zealously  performed  ; 
sometimes  of  late  at  the  cost  of  no  little  suffering  ;  for  during  the  last 
two  years,  the  subtle  disease  which  terminated  his  useful  and  honored 
life  made  prolonged  exertion  very  painful  to  him." 

The  preceding  sketch  of  the  life  of  the  late  Dr.  Caspar  Wister  has 
been  written  not  to  eulogize  him,  but  to  describe  the  prominent  features 
of  his  character,  so  that  all  may  see  how  it  grew,  better  and  better,  and 
stronger,  from  boyhood  to  maturity,  and  why  he  was  beloved  by  his 
contemporaries. 

He  was  not  a  leader  of  thought  in  any  direction,  an  investigator  in 
any  field  of  science,  nor  in  any  high  office  or  capacity  a  ruler  of  men, 
nor  a  contributor  to  medical  literature  in  any  form.  Nevertheless,  he 
faithfully  and  acceptably  discharged  all  professional  and  other  duties 
assigned  to  him  in  this  community.  His  manly  ways  and  cheering 
deportment  secured  to  him  in  a  rare  degree  the  confidence  of  all,  and 
made  him  a  favorite  among  gentlemen  widely  acquainted  with  men 
and  affairs.  He  was  popular.  His  warmly-attached  friends  were 
numerous.  It  may  be  said  without  disparagement  to  any,  that  of  the 
many  Fellows  who  have  been  more  eminent  and  justly  distinguished 
in  professional  achievement  and  learning,  none  has  obtained  in  a  higher 
degree  the  personal  affection  and  respect  of  this  brotherhood  of  physi- 
cians. 


^mI 


S->c-a-<;_ 


